'Shark Tank' offers a massive deal to founder who used her maternity leave stipend to start a business
Entrepreneurs on "Shark Tank" aren't just good with their pitches and innovative products, but they also stand out for inspiring back stories. 'Dreamland Baby' founder, Tara Williams, was one of them, who invested savings from her stipend into her product that solved a major problem faced by parents across the world. Williams came up with the idea of a weighted sleeping sack that helped babies sleep better and longer. She secretly spent the last $14,000 that she and her husband had. It all paid off for the couple as they managed to bag a $100,000 deal from Lori Greiner on the show.
Williams mentioned that as a mom of four, she barely got to sleep as her newborn had major trouble falling asleep. Thus she came up with the idea of a weighted blanket sleep sack to solve this problem. With the help of her husband, she demonstrated how the sack worked and claimed that the product increased relaxation through "deep touch stimulation." She also claimed that the weighted sack helped toddlers and babies naturally produce more serotonin and melatonin, which helped them sleep for longer. "The first night my newborn son wore the Dreamland Baby sleep sack, he went from waking up every one-and-a-hald hours, to sleeping 12 hours straight," she said.
She then explained, "So when my husband and I were both laid off, we had no money coming in. It was a desperate situation, but when I was on maternity leave." She added that in the state of California, workers are paid a stipend for being on maternity leave, so she had about $14,000 in the bank.
Williams then told the Sharks that the company had only made $30,000 from lifetime sales, out of which $25,000 came from a Kickstarter campaign and the other $5,000 came from customers online through her own website, which had been live for only 3 weeks. She further added that the sacks cost between $12.20 to $13.60 to manufacture, and they retail for $79.
Sharks were initially skeptical to invest due to concerns about sales. "This is a this isn't a company yet. It's a product and you got a world of challenges ahead," Kevin O'Leary said, before dropping out. Guest judge Daniel Lubetzky then jumped in to compliment the entrepreneur, calling her an inspiration. "You turned a crisis into an opportunity and you're building something really compelling," he said. However, Lubetzky felt he wasn't the right Shark for them, so he dropped out as well.
Mark Cuban said, "I don't see this as being a big enough business for me to invest in. So for those reasons, I'm out," and Robert Herjavec also went out, leaving Greiner as the only hope for the Williams. Greiner also acknowledged that Williams needed to put a "boatload of work" into the business, but she was willing to invest in it. "My thought is that it might be extremely helpful for you to license this to somebody who is in the business of either manufacturing baby products or in the baby arena," she suggested. She then offered Williams $100,000, but for 25% of equity.
Williams countered, saying, "Lori, do this deal with me! 20% is huge that's great and together, I mean there's another company Sleep Sack that is on track to do 90 million dollars. So that could be us. What if we're on track to do 90 million dollars?" Greiner asked the entrepreneur to meet her in the middle at 22.5%. Willams accepted the deal and walked away with $100,000.
"I feel amazing! Lori is who I came here for," she said. As per Forbes, Williams achieved what she promised, as just three years after its launch, Dreamland Baby was on track to surpass $35 million in revenue.
